Harvey Weinstein’s musical, “Finding Neverland,” will be part of the Tony telecast on Sunday night in a number performed by Jennifer Hudson, according to executive producer Victoria Parker, despite the fact that the show is not on Broadway.

The Tonys, which are essentially a giant, national commercial for Broadway, generally give airtime to the Broadway musicals that opened during the season. The lineup is always political — the most coveted spot, which will go to the Cotton Club-style revue “After Midnight,” this year — is the opening number, which is when the most number of eyes will be on the screen. Producers lobby the Tony’s producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner to get their show that gig starting the day the nominations are announced. Shows that don’t win Best Musical can still see a huge boost in tickets if the opening number captures the nation’s imagination. Read More »

After the Tony Award nominations comes the invariable nitpicking, second-guessing and outrage over snubs, real and perceived.

The nominating committee had tough choices to make in a year when there was an abundance of stellar productions, especially among the plays, a ton of great acting, and a slew of new musicals that were all over the map all vying for a very few spots.

Who Got Passed Over

High profile actors that did not get nominated this year include Denzel Washington in “A Raisin in the Sun,” Daniel Radcliffe in “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” James Franco in “Of Mice and Men,” and Michelle Williams in “Cabaret.” Mr. Franco and Ms. Williams had gotten mixed reviews, but the other two were well liked by critics. The entire cast of “Betrayal,” which broke records this fall when it took in $17.5 million for a 14-week run, was locked out of the race — Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Rafe Spall.

ON BROADWAY: “AFTER MIDNIGHT” I wasn’t sure I wanted to see this 90-minute musical revue of songs by Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen and Cab Calloway, which stars Fantasia and opens Sunday at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. But a colleague recommended it, so I went. It has some of the best dancing, costumes and singing in some time. You may want to go back weekly.

Read more about what’s happening this week: A Broadway musical revue starring Fantasia, a spectacular robot movie on demand, a young-adult novel by Meg Rosoff and more: the week ahead in pop culture from Marshall Heyman. Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.